1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of network telephony, and more specifically to devices, softwares and methods for indexing telephone conversations while they are being recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networks, such as Local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Area Networks (WANs), or the internet are increasingly being used for telephony. Network telephony is different from conventional telephony in many aspects. In network telephony the voice is encoded digitally, and transmitted as packets. The packets find their way through the network by complying with the so-called Internet Protocol (IP).
A problem in telephony is in recording conversations. These would require a massive data storage, since encoding voice consumes large amounts of bandwidth.
The problem is that needles of precious voice data are often hidden in haystacks of whole conversations. For example, in a telephone call with a stockbroker, a client's order forms a legally binding request. In the event of a later dispute, the client's voice placing the order must be retrieved. But that short duration of the telephone call may be buried in a long telephone conversation. For retrieving that short duration, it is necessary to play back the entire telephone call, which is time consuming. For another example, in a conference call, it may be desirable to isolate the instances where only a certain party speaks.